Your Own Kind Of Beauty

The cliché is, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Is there any real meaning to that? The expression simply says that beauty has no set meaning, definition, or even value for that matter. Beauty can be found anywhere – from an amazing sunrise to an individual helping a homeless person, to someone lost in thought. Each individual may interpret the idea of beauty for himself. Admit it: you’ve known someone who at one time did something weird or whacky for beauty, you may have even done something yourself. The definition of beauty is a quality in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses, or that pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.

The definition of beauty differs with the person’s age, culture, and way of thinking. A sight of beauty for a five-year-old boy is his trucks and train, whereas for a girl the most beautiful thing is her dolls. For Japanese, white skinned people are beautiful, while for American, browned skinned people are beautiful. An uplifting saying goes, “A beautiful smile is your best accessory.” To have a smile on your face is a universal feature of beauty, however many cultures have managed to form their own idea of perfect teeth. In the Western world today, a beautiful smile would consist of porcelain white, perfectly aligned, flawless teeth, whereas in Japan, women pay to have their perfect teeth disarranged.

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“Beauty is not always seen, but felt by the heart, ” said Hellen Keller. She was born blind and deaf, and yet she found beauty in her experiences. She had a positive outlook towards life and became a great motivator.

Beauty is not just the way one looks, but rather, the way it makes one feel. Beauty is the calmness one feels when driving, and another driver lets you pass on a merge, or doesn’t cut you off. Similarly, when a person assists you when you leave the grocery store or helps you pick up your groceries off the ground.

Beauty and ugliness are two concepts that can’t be accepted without each other. Without accepting something as ugly, we wouldn’t be able to visualize what real beauty it is. It is an indivisible combination, like good and bad, black and white, or evil and kindness. “Everything has beauty but not everyone can see it,” said Confucius. Confucius was right, beauty is not easy to see, most of the time it is somewhere hidden deep inside.

Very often an ugly and scary thing is judged because its beauty wasn’t found or understood. So was darkness at first. Darkness is very beautiful. During a dark time, we can admire and enjoy the things we are not able to when it is bright and light. For example stars and fireflies.

Beauty is how you perceive and see yourself, not how others perceive you. More people need to have the confidence to know that there is no one true definition to beauty, because everyone perceives it differently. So go out into the world today knowing you are beautiful.